More trees, less Bush!

Today in the United States of America, I attended my very first peace protest. The protest was on stopping the war in Iraq and getting the American troops out of the country and back home safely. The protest took place in famous Hollywood on the Hollywood Blvd. with 3000 + participants. This was a country wide protest that also took place in Washington, D.C. and New Chicago (I think) that was hosted by an organization called LA Answer (http://www.answerla.org/). It was the prefect day for a protest if there ever was one as the sun was hot and the streets were riot free. While there were bike cops around, the entire day was problem free and a huge success.

Beginning of peace march.

There was a lot of chanting going all over the place such as, "What do we want?" "Peace in Iraq", "When do we want it?" "Now". There were hippies, surfers, people from all walks of life that attended this march and it was very powerful to have all those people walking together for positive change. There was a also a lot of great signs and costume that were hilariously cleaver. Including one that said "the only Bush I trust is my own" It was amazing to see who much effort people put into their signs to get the message across, I think it worked!

One of many Bush costumes.

The crowd

Me and Deb (Chadwick OE director), who we happen to randomly
run into amongst the huge crowd

Straight to the point!

The crowd dancin' to the music.

The march ended right at the Kodak Center (where the Oscars take place) where we all got to dance and clap to the sounds of Jackson Brown, Ben Harper and this wicked LA band called Ozomatli (http://www.ozomatli.com/), while dubies were being passed around as it if were the 60s and Jimi Hendrix was still alive. It was pretty incredible to be apart of the entire day and be apart of some history. It's interesting to hear about all the politics and greater details about the war in Iraq as at home I find I only get the basic information. There were a few speakers that shared their stories with the crowd. A mother who lost her son to a suicide bomber, and a wife whose husband was convicted as a felon as he refused to go back to duty in Iraq. Martin Sheen was also there and sent out a very powerful message. It was an experience worth being apart of and gave me a chance to see the other side of Americans that made me realize that they aren't really all that different from us.

We also happen to run into a few famous stars on the walk of fame... we are still tourists!

Me at Donald Trump's star!

Amy at Kermit the Frog's star!